Goa: Cops stop Congress workers' march to Guv residence

Congress workers on Tuesday evening tried to march to the residence of Goa Governor Satya Pal Malik seeking his intervention in various issues including the Mahadayi river water sharing dispute.

A minor scuffle broke out outside the Raj Bhavan gate between workers of Congress and police personnel, when state Congress chief Girish Chodankar tried to jump over the barriers placed at the spot.

The party leaders Digambar Kamat, Pratima Coutinho and others too joined the march.

Before they set out, the state Congress emailed a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging revocation of green exemption granted to Karnataka for a project on the Mahadayi river.

Goa and Karnataka are at the loggerheads over sharing of the river water.

The issues the Congress wanted to bring to attention of the governor included a "dip in tourism business, failure of the BJP-led state government to save the Mahadayi river water etc".

"It is shocking to know that the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF), Government of India, has issued a clearance for the Kalsa-Bhandura project of Karnataka for diversion of water from Mahadayi river when the dispute is pending before the Supreme Court and the Mahadayi Water Disputes Tribunal," the Congress stated in its memorandum to the PM.

"If Karnataka is allowed to go ahead with its plan, then Goa is going to get severely affected as 11 hydroelectric projects are planned on flow of the Mahadayi river to generate 58 MW power, but diversion of water by Karnataka would reduce the flow and jeopardise these mini-hydel projects," it stated.